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I set my alarm clock last night with every intention of getting up early and run the four miles I missed the other day. (Since I am supposed to be on some type of training program)Well I didn’t get up quite as early as I wanted to, but still early enough to run two miles.

A few things I noticed on my run:

Anything lying in the street on the sidewalk or in the grass looks like a dead body.

Spiders are scary

It’s easier to run in the dark than the daylight, because you can’t see where you are going. Therefore, you don’t know how far you have to go.

Bunnies are scary. I saw the same bunny twice and both times, screamed a little. I swear the bunny looked like this…

Really it did!

Running in the dark/early morning is kind of calming since no one else is awake to bother you.

+ no air conditioning=….? If you guessed hot, unfocused, really talkative, kinda grumpy 20 4th graders. You’d be correct. Ya see, last night we had a crazy storm. It poured for at least an hour with lightning and hail (I’ve heard) in some spots. During that storm one wing of our school lost air conditioning. Which part of the school? Well of course the part with the upper graders and where my classroom is.

This lead to a really long morning and good part of the afternoon. The air got turned back on by 2…which was just about the time the kids go home. Ah well, at least it’s fixed for tomorrow.

In other School News

One of the first graders threw up during lunch yesterday and subsequently…went home. Well, he came back today. When he told me he felt sick today, I was concerned. So I asked I few guiding questions.

S – I feel sick

Miss G (getting up quickly)- Where do you feel sick? Is it your head?

S – No

Miss G – Is it your stomach?

S – No

Miss G – Well what does feel sick?

S – My arm

Oh well good because I was concerned that you were about to ralph on my shoes! I told him if another part of him felt sick that he should go to the bathroom if he needed to.

Tomorrow I’m super excited to be heading to Michigan to go to a game aaaannnddd to see the rest of my family aaannnndd to celebrate my cousin’s birthday! It’s bound to be a good weekend. I’m super psyched!

Seriously…go away! It pretty much rained the entire weekend. Which can kind of lead to cabin fever, especially when you are packing up all your worldly belongings and have not a whole of space to move.

In order to not go crazy, we all went to a Virginia Destroyers game. Who are the Virginia Destroyers you ask? Let me tell you. They are part of the UFL (United Football League) in Hampton Roads. It’s just like regular football. Honest, look!

A football field with lights!

Football players! And…

Cheerleaders, of course.

I really liked the game. It kind of reminded me of high school, just because it was at night and the lights…you know. The best part of the game was that the Destroyers won! They beat the Las Vegas Locomotives who won the championship last year, pretty snazzy.

Running Report

Sunday morning Leanne and I went for a run on the boardwalk. It was a nice change from First Landing and Mt. Trashmore. There were plenty of distractions (dogs, water, creepy tourists) that we really did notice that we were running. All in all we ran 3.5 miles with a mile (combined)warm up and cool down. Finally feeling like running the Wicked 10K is doable. I actually think I can do this!

That may look like just your ordinary, everyday, non biodegradable, styrofoam cup, but you’d be wrong. If you so happened to pick up that cup or nudge that cup, this is what you’d find underneath…

a Hugh Jass cockroach! Ugh! I don’t think it’s cute how they call them Palmetto bugs or water bugs down here. When I hear those words, I think of cuter bugs, bugs that won’t scurry around my classroom with gross germs all over them.

As I’m writing this I realized that I did not tell the janitors what was under the cup… So I am very sorry janitors that you will get a big surprise when you sweep my floor tonight.

Yuck! Just looking at the picture of the cockroaches grosses me the freak out!

And seeing these photos from the Emmys makes me like him even more! He used to be a drama teacher, was in Kissing Jessica Stein (where he met his longtime girlfriend), he is Don Draper, and he was hilarious on SNL…

Was this post just a ploy to talk about Jon Hamm and show funny videos and pictures….Yes.

This weekend was really dreary and cold. It pretty much rained for 75% of the weekend…and was cold. At least cold for Virginia Beach, read 60’s all weekend.

On Sunday, I did a long run. I just wrote walk, but I so did not walk. I ran 6 miles on Sunday. I was proud of self since I only took a couple of short walk breaks. Woooo, go me!

School News

We had a “birthday celebration” today right before sending the kids to P.E. All this really means is that the kids got a cupcake. When the birthday girl asked the classroom teacher if she wanted a cupcake, the teacher said she was full.

There was no sleeping during studying…I swear. I have to take a very important test tomorrow. This test dictates whether or not I get to graduate in December and get my Reading Masters. Sooo, it’s kinda important. I’d rather pass it on the first try, so studying was in order.

Also today was speed training. 10 minute 1/2 miles…not a whole lot of fun. It’s fun for about a split second when you feel like you could just keep going at that speed. Then your legs remind you that you, in fact, are not a Kenyan and need to slow your butt down. Or you get passed by an even faster runner, that’s always fun.

I did, however, get Chipotle for dinner. That was not fake awesome. It truly was for real awesome.

School news

I had a first grader tell me today (during play doh time) that chicken nuggets give you nutrition. True! I agree!

Then he proceeded to tell me that some food is garbage. Also true! Then told me you can take food out of the garbage, wash it off, and eat it. Hmmm, not true. He was totally on board with this logic. I am not.

So after my haircut, I did a 3 mile run. I so totally didn’t want to do it since I had just got my hair did. Just imagine I looked like this…

Yup, just like Jennifer Aniston…in heels. Whatevs, haters.

All this running is for a reason…the Wicked 10K. Over the weekend I got a pair of “tattoo sleeves.” Don’t worry mom, I did not get a sleeve on either arm. Rather, they are just mesh sleeves you can take on and off. I figure this will work well for whom ever is decided to be “rock” in our trio of rock, paper, scissors.

This week is flying by in teacher land. Kinda crazy. The kids are good…they seem calmer this year than last. We’ll see what happens as we progress. I’m excited to teach the little guys!

I know there are going to be numerous blogs, articles, shows…on 9/11. I wasn’t there, I was in Ohio. I still want to share what it was like for me. I can’t believe that it’s been 10 years…my timeline may be a little off, but this is what I remember.

I remember…

Going to my morning class in college and not be all that psyched about going…it was an early class.

We got out of that class early, so my roommate and I decided to grab some breakfast from the dining room. When we walked in (we had to scan our student ID’s) my eyes drifted to the TV’s. I saw a building on fire. I remember thinking, “That’s weird, I wonder why that building is on fire.” I then grabbed my bagel and fruit and got went back to my dorm room.

I remember

Turning on the TV in our room and be assaulted by the images of the World Trade Center. I turned on the TV just as the second plane hit. It seems like it took forever for my brain to catch up with what was actually happening on the TV.

A plane crashed into the Twin Towers? What happened? How did that happen? (I still didn’t know that it was a terrorist attack).

I remember

My roommate and I being in total shock. What was going on? Did everybody else know about this?

I remember looking out our window and seeing students walking around like it was a normal day. Happy. Only the worries of a normal college student on their mind. I was jealous.

The rest of the day was pretty much spent watching CNN/NBC/whatever other news station or channel for that matter. I had an afternoon psych class that I was supposed to go to and I couldn’t believe that the university didn’t cancel it. I went to my class and all we did was watch more news. I can remember thinking that it was kind of ironic that I was in a psych class on this horrible day. The class didn’t last long, our professor let us go. Not too much later the university canceled classes. The next days classes were canceled as well.

My friends and I pretty much spent 9/11 watching the news and calling friends and family. I felt overwhelmingly anxious and like my stomach now lived in my throat.

I remember

Watching the news and seeing people jumping out of the windows of the Twin Towers. There are no words for that.

I remember

Thinking about all those people in the towers, praying for them.

There was a candlelight vigil. It felt good for all of us to be together as a campus. It felt safe. We were all grieving/anxious/comforted together. Several students spoke about how they were feeling.

I remember

The pain

HOLESby Lillian Morrison

Strangest of gapstheir goneness-mother, father, loved friends

the black holesof the astronomerare not more mysterious

this kind of holewill not be filledwith candle flamesor even a thousand thoughts

the hole is inside usit brims overis empty and full at once.

Life after 9/11 got back to normal after a few weeks, but things were always different. There was now always something nagging in the back of my mind that something could happen. Now, dishearteningly, I wondered about the people who flew with me …who were they?

The next year, my mom, aunt and I took a trip to NYC. We went to Ground Zero.

I remember

My grandma talking to the security guard about where he was from and where he was on that day. I remember the fence surrounding Ground Zero and how it was covered in pictures, notes, stories, and names.

What I remember most about standing by that fence was how quiet it was. Even though we were in New York City and there were workers in Ground Zero… it was quiet.

New York City will never be exactly the same to me. How could it? I still love New York and think it’s wonderous.

Today I will pray for the families that lost their loved ones, the people in the planes, the people in the Twin Towers, the firefighters/doctors/ambulance drivers and countless others who helped.

Fair warning, there are “dirty” words in this song (if you didn’t know) and also this isn’t Jay Z’s version.

So…yeah. I ran yesterday: easy 2 miler and the iPod died even though it had plenty of battery, so I thought , when I started. No biggie, I was almost done anyway. But you bettah believe I still kept my earphones in. I don’t want to actually talk to people while I run..who does that!?

After my run, Bond apparently mistook the sweaty, matted hair for Capt. Jack Sparrow and decided to nuzzle my neck and act like a parrot…